After thinking about it a while, I finally launched a new side blog, The Better World Buffet.
My friends in the Good Omens fandom probably won't be surprised that I'm an avowed communitarian and optimist. The new blog embraces and expands on that tendency. I'll share stories and tools that remind us that we can build a better world, day by day, even when it appears the odds are against us.
Check out my Happy New Year post where I share a bit of my local culture and why it gives me hope for the future. I'm inviting my Good Omens friends to join me because I've found many like-minded people in the fandom. If you like what you see and look forward to more, follow.
After all, if you believe a bunch of kids and a dog (with a little assistance from an angel and demon) can defeat Satan, taking down the fascists and oligarchs seems like the next best step.
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Communitarianism is the philosophy that focuses on 'the connection between individuals and the community' with a focus on how a person is 'largely molded by community relationships' and less focus on individualism, with community being the family as well as the wider community, with a focus on those who share a geographical location, interest, history, or other non-coercive social structures, which sets it apart from collectivism, which is often exercised in the form of state authority, and individualism. While as a formal field of philosophy, it is relatively recent, originating in the 20th century, the idea goes back far in history, with some viewing hunter-gatherer societies in the Paleolithic through settled societies of the Chalcolithic (Copper Age) were communitarian, seeing to the needs of those within the community.
Communitarianism is also linked with concepts like communism, where property is shared in common between all members of the group. Pythagoras and his followers 'lived in one building with all property in common because the philosopher taught the absolute equality of property with all worldly possessions being brought into a common store'. In the Republic, Plato 'rejected the concept of family and private property. In a social order divided into warrior-kings and craftsmen and peasants, Plato conceived and ideal Greek city-state without any form of capitalism and commercialism with business enterprise, political plurality, and working-class unrest considered as evils that must be abolished', forming the basis of many utopias that followed.
Cooperation is another form of communitarianism, with several studies suggesting that language and fairness enable cooperation, and that teaching, helping and self-sacrifice, and cooperative problem solving is a form of 'selfish behavior, working together to solve a problem, because it yields success to engage cooperatively, typically this means work in effort toward solving a problem can only ever be solved by a cooperative effort, for example, most individuals working cooperatively, but especially within families, has made cooperative behaviors generally aggregated together to accomplish major problem solving for survival'. Democracy is a form of this type of cooperation, requiring 'social comparison, engagement with collaboration, and wanting to be someone who shares, which all stems from the desire to not monopolize all resources but to gradually accept divvying up of resources of collaboration'. Cooperation has been required for all human achievements, including the study of philosophy, and survival.
Seneca, a Stoic philosopher who lived from about 4 BCE-65 CE, wrote that '[h]ow happy was the primitive age when the bounties of nature lay in commonâŚThey held all nature in common which gave them secure possession of the public wealth'. His writings were positively regarded by the early Christian church, which also held beliefs that Jesus' teachings supported the idea that goods should be held in common and the community should help support those within it, not just physically, but psychologically and religiously, a form of mutual aid and defense.
The Philosophy of "We" explores the meaning, significance, and ethical implications of collective identity, shared agency, and communal existence. It delves into how individuals relate to each other not as isolated selves, but as participants in a larger "we" â a family, society, culture, or humanity itself.
Key Concepts:
Collective Identity: âWeâ implies a shared identity â a sense of belonging that arises from common values, goals, or origins. Philosophers like Hegel and Rousseau examined how individuals become part of larger wholes.
Shared Intentionality: Thinkers such as John Searle and Margaret Gilbert discuss how groups form intentions together, leading to joint actions and obligations â a foundation for institutions and societies.
Ethics of Solidarity: The "we" is often central to moral thought. Ethics rooted in care, communitarianism, or ubuntu focus on mutual responsibility, interdependence, and relational existence.
Political Implications: "We the people" raises questions about democratic legitimacy, voice, and representation. Who gets included in the "we"? Who is excluded?
Ontological Questions: Is âweâ just a sum of individuals, or is it something greater? This leads to debates in social ontology about whether groups have real existence beyond individuals.
Psychological and Phenomenological Views: Philosophers like Merleau-Ponty and Husserl examine how shared experiences shape consciousness â how âweâ perceive the world together.
In summary:
The philosophy of "we" challenges radical individualism by emphasizing interconnectedness, shared identity, and the ethical demands of living together. It raises profound questions about how unity, cooperation, and social bonds form the backbone of human life.
As someone who falls somewhere in the centrist postliberal/communitarian/Ubuntu philosophy camp of political philosophy, I worry that postliberalism and communitarianism in the US are being subsumed by the right and becoming synonymous with some of the far right movements, like JD Vance, which is not necessarily what these philosophies are.
They are neither Left, Right, or Center, but rather describe philosophies standing in contrast to stark individualism and acknowledge the communal nature of society and individuals.
It is not inherently Christian Nationalist cottagecore philosophy
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[Alasdair MacIntyreâs] actual work and not whatever The Benedictine Option guy took out of it
I take my hat off to you.
XD thank you!
It's just that in Catholic circles he's mostly known as "the guy who wrote that book to own the leftists, who inspired The Benedictine Option that validates the idea that we should all go found Catholic communes in the middle of nowhere" and like... it's not just reductive, it's not just selling short a lot of very sharp observations and suggestions MacIntyre makes, it's not just that he as an author really, really dislikes to be boxed into One Of UsTM in either direction of the spectrum, it's not just that he personally said The Benedictine Option is a misreading of After Virtue... it's all of those things together and more. It's really like the lazy kid that needs to make an essay on a book so they go read the last paragraph and think that's all there is to the book. And in this case that compounds with going into the book determined to make it tell you only what you want to hear. And it makes me very mad.
At this point I do mean to write a dissertation on MacIntyre and this is the thing I'm most interested in addressing, but sadly you cannot title a thesis "why The Benedictine Option guy is wrong and a moron".
So, I left Reddit: here is my personal experience.
So, I recently decided to quit Reddit.Â
To make it short: I didnât find myself in Redditâs values. Why? Well, thatâs what youâll get to find out throughout this (illustrated) article!
But, before we begin, I would like to specify that, obviously, everything that is written here will only imply my personal feelings about this platform. It doesnât mean it should be generalized as an absolute truth: basically, this is just me venting about my personal experience. (You might still want to see if you find yourself in some of my words though? Perhaps, you might have felt something similar at some point?)
Anyway.
If there is one thing I can say, it is that itâs not the first time Iâve seen Reddit being described as âtoxicâ by some (current and former) users.Â
And to be honest with you, the term âtoxicâ was also a word that intuitively came to mind when it came to describe my personal feeling regarding my experience with this website (far before I got to find out I wasnât alone!) Yet, it has taken awhile for me to finally decide to just quit... till I felt overloaded.
Meanwhile, many people keep using it, that is is because it is full of resources (which it is!), or to fill up their feeling of boredom or loneliness... but basically, this social network actually works and gathers a large community.
So, what made Reddit âtoxicâ (at least for me)?Â
1. The conformist aspect of Reddit.
One of the feelings I had about Reddit and its community was that it was mainly based on social desirability, and more generally conformist principles.
Well, though these principles can be globally found at some extent in our society (and donât get me wrong, I donât always associate âconformityâ with something negative), on Reddit it felt like it tended to be⌠somewhat reinforced.
To sum it up: if you want to fit in, you have to think like the others, and show what a majority wants to see.
And what if you donât think like the others? Well, the system enables people to anonymously downvote you⌠which basically gives them the power to literally punish you for having, well⌠different ideas.
And when Iâm talking about different ideas, Iâm not especially talking about having controversial views, or being a jerk. But literally thinking a bit differently, having a different insight?
While this is a point I have already mentioned and developed in one of my previous Tumblr posts awhile ago, I suppose the justice system of Reddit was initially based on the following principle that is: âBe nice, youâll get upvotes, be a jerk and youâll get downvotedâ.
Except that⌠this is in an idealistic world where people are all benevolent with one another.
And the truth is that, well. You might want to share ideas you love, and yet get punished for this. That it is: regardless of how nice, considering you are... they donât like your ideas? You get lashed.
*As a concrete example (that I also have brought up in my previous article), I currently have a fixation in which I represent Alastor (from Hazbin Hotel) as a trans man.
So, my little happy neurodivergent self wanted to share my ideas with other people⌠and perhaps, find some who might like the same things as me? I just wanted to feel⌠you know, less alone.
And instead, this is what I got on r/HazbinHotel (and later on r/HazbinHotelFanart too... huh, perhaps they migrated?): a bunch of downvotes! And a few depreciative comments, obviously supported by other people from the same fan community.
This also applied to a comment I left on someoneâs thread asking for our main headcanons. I wanted to make new friends, but... you know.
(Seems like imagining Al as a trans man pissed off that part of the community!)
Thing is: not only will it affect the number of points you receive on your single publication (called karma on Reddit) but also directly the karma that shows up on your profile page.
Alongside, if in the comment section your comment is sufficienly downvoted, it gets buried (which hasnât happened to me personally, but you might observe interesting cases sometimes).
So this is it: you get punished for having different ideas. As much as your comments or your publications have to fit with the attitude of the majority within a community.
Well, so: you have to consider one point every time you want to post something on Reddit: whatâs the majorityâs attitude toward this one specific subject?
Post what people want to see. This is basically what the whole system lays upon and what we call in social sciences: social desirability. This basically encourages you to show the best part of you⌠or anyway, what others might consider as the best part of you. You want karma? Think like the others or youâll get a sanction.
And, how about creating a community on Reddit⌠with the same ideas as you? Well! This might definitely work at a certain extent, but this wonât remove the fact you will still have to consider the majorityâs attitude every time you post something (that it is a new publication or a comment).Â
This feeling people have to think the same way made my mind (sadly) start associating Reddit and its users with... a huge mass. Both heterogeneous, and yet homogeneous at the same time... but in a way, I could hardly consider people as individual entities, if not just as part of a mass. (And thatâs when I started feeling like something was going wrong in my mind...)
Paradoxically, I think this whole point is yet also something that reinforced in me the idea that I donât want to identify to those people, or base my self-esteem on their attitude. So, basically I shouldnât stop doing my artistic works or having my ideas because those people donât like them.
2. An easier way to spread hatred onlineâŚ
Now we talked about the upvote/downvote system in which you can literally reward or punish someone pretty much anonymously⌠well.
I suppose I might also have a word to say about this concept of feeling âanonymousâ online.
While I definitely agree with the fact pseudonymization is quite important when it comes to use the Internet (which isnât a synonym of anonymity by the way) as a barrier to protect oneself (and even more the underage users!), many people might actually feel âanonymousâ onlineâŚ
And, while in an idealistic world, you would expect people to use this barrier of protection for the only purpose of⌠feeling protected, basically (or in other legitimate situations, such as using a name that might suit them more than their legal name for example?), well, reality is somewhat differentâŚ
The feeling of being âanonymousâ often offers this feeling of not taking responsibility for the course of oneâs actions⌠and sometimes, regardless of the impact it might have toward the other person. Unfortunately, this also conducts many people to spread hatred without ever thinking they might pay the consequences for any of it.
Well, you know how (many) humans behave, donât you? When they feel like they wonât be granted any responsability for what they do.
Just check the state of public places, or even public toilets? That might give you a little idea.
Alongside, there is a fair difference between using your freedom of speech with courtesy, and literally abusing of it, by: sending insults without any genuine reason, threats, harassment, humiliation etc.
Now, apply all of what I said above to Reddit⌠if you add the fact people can downvote anyone without feeling like they will have to take responsibility from any of it: it will yet only take them half a second to do the deed.
But, other things on Reddit will also enable you to do actions without your username being associated with them!
As a concrete example I have in mind, a Redditor mentioned the fact they received a reward on one of their comments about something they liked, to receive an anonymous message⌠telling them to kill themself. (You can decide to send an anonymous reward to someone and then a message associated with it)
While the Internet is a universe that can be full of resources, it is yet important to remember that alas, not everyone will be benevolent in there, regardless of the social network you use (I think Twitter also has a quite bad reputation regarding this matterâŚ)
However, Redditâs system might unfortunately favor this type of behavior .
So, please. Remember there is a human behind that screen. Thatâs why I think itâs important to stay respectful and courteous with one another.
3. The (excessive?) communitarianism of Reddit.
3.1 Toward a community, for the community.
Iâve noticed there is something that tends to distinguish Reddit from the other social platforms: where you post your content.
While, letâs say, on DeviantArt, Tumblr, or even Twitter the content you post is mainly on your personal page (then you can use common places including groups or forums to promote it, or even hashtags), on RedditâŚ
⌠well, you post on communities (also called âsubredditsâ).
You might try to post on your personal page (yes, you can), but letâs be honest: without the possibility to add tags/hashtags, your content is very likely to stay there⌠unseen, and without much interest per se.
Personally, I felt like what made me exist on Reddit was truly the interactions I had within communities than as an person per se. Thing is⌠it felt like my comments were just like one among a mass of people. And if you were lucky by any chance⌠it might receive a few karma points.
Yet, this type of dynamics didnât especially enable me to make a lot of friends, as⌠err, how could I describe that? Well, it felt like people quickly passed by, left their comment⌠then left toward another thread. I donât know... Everything was so mechanic. Everything was so quantitative, maybe? Mechanical, mindless sometimes? It made me feel a bit like a pawn among a bunch of people⌠and you âexistâ by the karma you get from these interactions.
So, finally, while at first I wanted to feel less lonesome⌠to be fair, it made me feel more and more⌠lonesome instead.
(Which might sound like a paradox when we imagine the idealistic dynamics of a âcommunityâ, right?)
Another (minor) point that was probably meant to contribute to the feeling of belonging to a community (and resembling one another) was the concept of the avatar that you could use on this platform: the same character with the exact same posture that you could more or less customize. I guess some people might like this concept, others a bit less.
To be honest, while I tried this avatar pattern myself (to fit in the mass), I have yet to admit I salute those who were using singular avatars instead.
Well, now⌠donât get me wrong, I donât have anything against the principle of âcommunityâ per se. I think it is also important to gather people together around a same subject of interest, to not always stay alone in a cornerâŚ
And in fact, society is made of (a plurality of) communities!Â
(Well, I might occasionally join groups or Discord servers⌠and if there is some good dynamics, Iâm staying for awhile!)
But, to be fair, I also need my personal space, which I can find in other social networks. While they also offer you the possibility to share your work inside communities, it feels less mandatory to reach some visibility. You know, it feels more⌠personal maybe?
So, basically as you understood this point: Redditâs dynamics is mainly focused on the notion of community than on the notion of individuality.
But, we arenât done with this third point. Here is where itâs going to be interestingâŚ
3.2. The derisory place of (individual) property
Communities, subreddits⌠and you might want to create a subreddit yourself!
But, little disclaimer if you do so (an element that I myself didnât know before I started my own): this subreddit will NEVER be completely yours. And will MAINLY belong to the community, regardless of your will.
Now. Let me explain.
Before I quit Reddit, there was one last question that remained: what am I going to do with my subreddit?
My decision ended up being simple considering its lack of activity: I supposed it could just go to the graveyard with my account.
Alas⌠it didnât take me long to find out about one thing: you canât delete subreddits once you create them. And worse than that?
Well, if you quit, the members will actually become moderators themselves, regardless of your will.
If you add to this the fact you actually canât truly know whoâs part of the members, as you canât even access to the list of the members of your own subreddit to begin with! (The only way to assume someone might be a member is if by any chance they have manifested their presence at some point, in a way you can see their usernameâŚ)
Thankfully there is one thing you can do to prevent this from happening: you can set it as âprivateâ (in case you wondered why Sam was locking a door in my first illustration), which will basically no longer grant access to the members you havenât approved before.
HOWEVER. If you thought you could quit, with a condemned subreddit for ever⌠you are actually wrong!
Any Redditor can actually request an abandoned subreddit as their own.
Now, youâll tell me: âBut, why did you want to delete this subreddit if you could leave it to the existing community instead?â, which actually happens to be a legitimate question from a democratic point of view (and at first I might sound like the villain in the story!)
But here are the things from my perspective now.
Imagine you create a subreddit, have people join in to look at its contentâŚ
⌠but, you are the main driving force of this subreddit: you struggle to promote it, to make it active by posting content, you support the (very rare) contributors who might post in there. And nobody helps you. You are always alone.
Who encourages you? Who helps you promote it? Who contributes? You, and only yourself. And people⌠just watch.
Well, there is a very specific metaphor I like to use in this type of situations, including one-sense relationships. And itâs this one.
The sled that might be pushed/pulled by only one person while the other(s) is/are sitting on it.
Now, from this perspective⌠who should get the fruit of these efforts?
Sam, who struggled hard to keep it going⌠or the people who were sitting on his efforts all along?
Needless to say someone reproached me to think that at some point I may want to keep the property of this subreddit, to at least have the right to delete it. As if⌠I owed them something, somehow.
Does this make me egoistic?Â
But if so, Iâd tend to think Iâm fine with being egoistic, as itâs pretty much consistent with my sense of (self) justice. As much as sometimes, you have to think of yourself before the others... perhaps it goes more with self-respect?
Meanwhile, did this person (or anyone else who read my announcement) ever wonder how the admin (myself) was doing, to begin with?
Anyway. In my personal opinion, though I could understand that in huge subreddits with many resources and contributors the question might legitimately be set on the table, I definitely think you should have a say regarding the future of your subreddit. More especially when it wasnât very active to begin with, or youâve been the main contributor to itâŚ
(But thatâs Redditâs spirit anyway: everything belongs to the community!)
Moreover, I also noticed that Reddit, in fact⌠likes to keep things available, including the content you âdeleteâ.
Well, there is a basical rule on the Internet that says: always be careful with the content you post online because it will stay there for ever.
But, unlike many platforms in which when you delete something you canât really access to it anymore through its initial URL (which doesnât mean no archive exists about it of course!), on Reddit, in fact, you can. For instance, just keep the URL of the âdeletedâ post and youâll still be able to reach it back (though Iâm not sure if the media will keep showing up⌠but youâll still have access to the comment section and be able to participate).
If you delete your account, the content you have left there will remain⌠except that your username will be dissociated and be marked as â[deleted]â.
Reddit is for sure full of resources available for everyone⌠and for some reason, it truly wants it to remain available. And this, you wonât really have your say about this.
5. An international platform that mainly revolves around the United States of America (from my little French point of view)
One thing I have noticed with Reddit, is that it for sure gathers people from all over the world, but yet⌠everything revolves around the United States.
That it is about the news, politics, and the main subjects you can find on Reddit⌠most of it is about the USA.
(If you seek legal advices on r/legaladvice⌠it might be more complicated if you live outside the US for example)
I also saw a lot of popular threads asking these same questions such as: âNon-Americans, what do you think about the US?â, âHow would you describe America?â or things involving politics from the US.
Of course, donât bother responding with French references in the comment section of main subreddits: nobody will get them (except if youâre lucky and one Frenchie passes by).
Alongside, small communities exist for other countries, but the rest of Reddit is basically about the US. It felt a bit like⌠I was a little foreigner stepping in the USA maybe?
I guess we could think itâs normal as Reddit is typically American (made by Americans from the US basically), so it might be intuitive to predict itâs going to reflect the American culture after all.
Yet, I donât know⌠from an external point of you, though the seat of most popular platforms online might be located in the US as well, I guess I didnât feel as much⌠immersed in the US as in Reddit in fact. Despite some events taking place in the US (for obvious reasons), Tumblr, Twitter or even DeviantArt have felt more⌠international I guess? I felt like these platforms were less centered on a single country basically.
As for Reddit, I suppose if you live in the USA, you might feel at home at least.
6. Now, as for the positive aspects...
Well, while unfortunately the sum of the elements mentioned above made me quit, I have yet to say Reddit also has a few positive things to offer that might, perhaps, be more suitable for you!
One major thing about Reddit, as I mentioned a few times above, is that there is a great amount of resources in this platform. That it is about news, questions you might wonder, or content you are looking for?
There is a bit of everything on Reddit in fact (well, if you have very special kinks, you might find your happiness maybe?) So basically, you can find all types of communities and content in there. If you feel alone with something you experience or like, you might be surprised to find out some communities might exist about this same subject!
(This is also how I found out what seems to be my âaegosexualityâ. ĂO Some stranger on Reddit suggested this term to me, which made me then discover a community existed around it. Well, not like I made any friend from it or it made me feel any less lonesome⌠but at least I found out it was a thing x)
Therefor, I guess if you donât especially use it to interact with people in general, it might at least be ideal to visualize content.
(As a side note: Reddit is also a platform used by many influencers/Youtubers in their videos: and to be honest, it was interesting to discover some little corners from this platform).
Alongside, if some reactions happened to be hostile toward my art, I also have to admit that the dynamics of posting my content directly in communities had a positive side: it offered a greater visibility to my works in general, and for that aspect⌠well. Reddit definitely beat the other social networks to it!
But, to be fair, was that sufficient to keep me on this platform? Not really.
I suppose Iâd rather go with less views, and a valuable community of people who truly like what I post than⌠that mass, that used to trigger this anxiety. Perhaps, I just prefer to be myself on my own page, than to feel the need to consider a majorityâs attitude everytime I post in a community. At least to stay consistent with myself.
Finally, Iâve kept a few contacts from Reddit, and this enabled me to discover actual people, as their individual selves. Which I tend to find more interesting actually. So, they will definitely be part of the positive experience Iâll keep in mind.
Anyway, I could say I would miss Reddit, but...
Today, I feel like this is the best decision Iâve taken as there is no more cognitive dissonance that remains, and this feels more consistent with my personal feelings and values. To be fair, not long after I quit, I felt like some sort of strong relief? I was eventually done with it.Â
So this is it: I suppose I just didnât recognize myself in Redditâs spirit.
